Retention, Part Eleven: Create a Safe Space

By Sanya Weathers

In Monday’s column, I touched on the topic of keeping your open chat channels free of hate speech, in order to create an expectation among your users that behaving like a decent human being was the norm, not the exception.

If you create that expectation, it will lead to better retention.

Gamers are still overwhelmingly young, white, and male, but thanks to both casual gaming and the mass market appeal of big name MMOs, the numbers of people in other demographics is growing. But unlike the traditional gamer, these new customers did not grow up in gaming culture, do not accept casual rudeness as normal, and are more likely to walk away rather than get into a fight. Allowing them to be chased away by the users who will consume your product no matter how your moderate your discussion channels is counterproductive.

Furthermore, these new gamers represent new income streams and market growth, as opposed to cannibalizing players from other similar products.

Finally, carving out a civilized space on the internet is just the right thing to do. It’s not about being politically correct, or ruining anyone’s fun.

It’s completely possible to have an entertaining flame war without using racial slurs, homophobic language, misogyny, or other kinds of unacceptable rudeness. It’s also possible to have this kind of environment without having thousands of moderators. Start early, allow no exceptions, and give no attention to people using the negative words. Delete their posts and ban them. The customers you gain (and the customers you won’t lose as a result of bad behavior) will more than make up for the loss.

You will create a community that self-regulates, full of customers who keep coming back for more because you’ve created a public space where all kinds of people are comfortable.